1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally concerns computer game controllers and exercise equipment controllers, and particularly controllers that are suitably actuated in various manners, including by the feet, for the control of computer games and exercise equipments.
2. Background Of The Invention
There exist many different types of controllers for computer games, or exercise equipments, or the like. The controllers are selectively actuated by a human user to produce a signal input which the computer game, or exercise equipment, will use to produce a desired effect. These controllers--especially if intended for use with computer games or exercise equipments that elicit user-generated physical forces and/or agile motions for controller actuation--generally predetermine (i) the nature, (ii) the location(s), and (iii) the magnitude, of the forces and motions that must be generated by the user and applied to the controller.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,702 for a JOGGING GAME APPARATUS shows a mat upon which a user jogs in place in order to establish, and control, a simulated race on a game board between a game piece representing the user and a simulated competitive runner. The pace of the jogging is important for the user to win the race, but the magnitude or force of the user-generated jogging motion is not sensed, and the location of the user-generated jogging motion is predetermined.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,095 for an EXERCISE MONITOR SYSTEM AND METHOD shows an exerciser, such as a treadmill for running or an equivalent device for simulated cycling or rowing or the like, that is powered by the user. The user's speed, and progress, is interactive with the monitoring device, and system, so as to change the speed of an outdoors exercising scene that is presented to the user. Though the user may control the magnitude, and pace, of his/her exercise, the fundamental nature of the type of exercise motions--either walking, or jogging, or rowing, etc.--that the user must supply in order to actuate the monitor system is predetermined. Additionally, the system is interactive with the user, monitoring the user to control the pace of presentations. This type of interactive presentation control is impractical for standard video tapes which run at a fixed and invariant speed on VCRs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,017 for a CONTROL UNIT for video games and the like shows control units actuated by both the hands and feet. The necessary actuation stimuli is, however, predetermined.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,567 for an EXERCISE BICYCLE APPARATUS PARTICULARLY ADAPTED FOR CONTROLLING VIDEO GAMES shows an exercise bicycle providing control signals based on the motion of the handlebars as well as on the speed at which the bicycle is pedalled. Although the rate, and type, of the actuating motion provided by the user to control the video game may, accordingly, be varied, the fundamental nature of the physical motions that must be undergone by the user in order to control the game are predetermined by the construction of the apparatus, and are neither user selectable nor user selected.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,864 for a HAND GRIP EXERCISING, COMPUTER GAME CONTROLLER shows a spring-loaded hand grip device producing a variable electrical signal in proportion to the force of actuation applied thereto. The signal that is generated in proportion to applied force--which force simulates throwing or hitting or kicking--is predetermined by the preset magnitude of the spring of the hand grip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,817 for a RECREATIONAL APPARATUS again shows a device, similar to the EXERCISE BICYCLE APPARATUS of U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,567, wherein substantial muscular exertion is required by an operator during the controlled play of a video game. Although the user can, by adjusting a resistance in the form of a spring, variably determine the magnitude of the force that must be applied to a cycling apparatus in order to actuate the video game, the user cannot vary the essential cycling nature of this applied force, nor the spatial dimensions of the cycling apparatus by which the force will be applied.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,789 for a VIDEO EXERCISER GAME FLOOR CONTROLLER WITH POSITION INDICATING FOOTPADS shows a floor controller using weight-sensitive pads. The pads occupy fixed positions, and are actuated in accordance with predetermined forces.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,787,624 and 4,801,137 do not concern video controllers at all, but do reveal that it is useful to an exercising user to be able to vary the weight of handles, or hand straps, that are used during physical exercises such as jumping rope.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,189 for a BODY-MOUNTED VIDEO GAME EXERCISE DEVICE shows a video game controller, attachable to the user's upper body, that is actuated by the leaning, bending, or other tilting of the user's upper body. A hand-held push button is attached to the controller via a flexible cord for additional control of the video game, such as the control of simulated firing.
The many previous controllers collectively indicate that it is desirable to allow a user to control different computer games, and to respond to different exercise regimens, by physically generating diverse motions and forces, at diverse rates and magnitudes, to a controller of the computer game or exercise equipment. Although the individual controllers span many different types of user-generated motions and forces, and occasionally permit the rates, or the magnitudes, of the required motion and force inputs to the controller to be preselected by the user, the individual game controllers are, in general, rigid in prescribing the nature and the location(s) of the motions and forces that the user must provide in order to satisfy the requirements of the game or exercise regimen.
Those controllers, or control systems, that permit the greatest flexibility in selecting among user-generated actuating motions and forces are often custom systems. These custom, interactive, controllers are unsuitable for the control of diverse standard computer games or video exercises where only a few simple signals (e.g., up, down, left, right, go (fire), or stop (don't fire)) control the progress, or score, within the game or exercise.
In certain videotaped exercise regimens and computer games it is desired to induce the user to undergo gross physical motions--jumping, hopping, reaching, forcibly contacting, etc.--in order to demonstrate, and to improve, his/her skill or fitness in controlling progress, and/or in obtaining a score, on the game or exercise. In these physical-type games and exercises it would be useful if users of differing physical fitness and energy levels were able to selectively, and variably, configure and reconfigure a universal controller so that a given game, or exercise, would accept different, variably predetermined, user-generated motions and forces in order to produce the same results. The user would desirably be able to preselect a universal computer game or exercise equipment controller in any of the (i) nature (ii) magnitude, or (iii) rate of the motions and forces that he/she will subsequently provide to the controller in order to register a certain level of progress, or score, on the computer game or on the exercise.
For example, advanced or physically fit users would be able to set up such a universal video exercise equipment, or computer game, controller so that it would subsequently require relatively more exacting, or more extensive, or more forceful, user-generated actuating motions and forces in order to accomplish the same results of play, or exercise, that less-advanced users could achieve by less aggressive actuation of the same controller, alternatively initialized. For example, the same user could preselect that same progress, or score, on a computer game that was at one session to be based on his or her agile movement of the legs and feet, would, at another session, be based on forceful strikes by the hands. Of course, if a particular computer game or exercise video were to suggest a certain manner of physical response--such as, for example, running and leaping--to which the user desired to adhere during play or exercise, it should be straightforward for the user to initialize and preselect the universal controller so that it will respond to the desired motions and forces.
In such a manner a controller universally user-configured in the motions and forces to which it responds might be variably customized to the requirements of individual users. It might be altered over time as an individual user either developed in strength or prowess, or desired a change in the nature of the physical motions and forces which he or she provides in order to actuate the computer game or exercise equipment. The set up, and the subsequent manual actuation, of such a variably configured controller would desirably be totally without effect on the computer game, or the exercise equipment (including VCRs playing predetermined exercise videotapes). The computer game, or exercise equipment, or videotape exercise, would proceed normally regardless of how an individual user variably configured his controller in any of the nature, magnitude, or rate of the motions and forces which he/she will provide.